Although there is no birth date recorded in the documents or online sources for the well-known Methodist Episcopal minister James W. Alderman, it can be inferred from newspaper and journal clippings in the collection that he was born on December 29, 1834. It is, however, recorded that he died on July 10, 1912, in Kansas City, Kansas. According to his memoir in the Kansas Conference Journal (1913, page 62), “he was tired; he was worn; he had been ailing … for some years from a disease contracted during the Civil war … and bronchial pneumonia had added its danger to that disease.” His wife, Adeline, had died just two months earlier. James W. Alderman was born in Athens, Ohio, the youngest of a family of 14, “a farmer lad, big of his age, always in dead earnest.” He was educated at the Ohio Wesleyan university. On September 11, 1854, when he was 19, he was admitted on trial to the Ohio Circuit and was assigned “one of the hardest of circuits. It – and he – thrived.” It is probably while serving on this circuit that he married 18-year-old Adeline Wilson (1837-1912). Two years after his admittance on trial, at age 21, he was received into full connection and ordained deacon, and in 1858 he was ordained elder. In 1860 he was transferred to the Central Ohio Conference. When the Civil War began, he served as chaplain of a regiment of the 130th Ohio infantry. After the war, in 1869, he was transferred to the Troy conference and stationed at Grace Church, Albany (N. Y.). He continued in this conference for 14 years, serving charges in Grace Church (Albany), First Church (Glens Falls), Washington Avenue (Troy), and Ash Grove Place Church (Albany). He was also chaplain of Sing Sing prison for two years. In 1880 he received an honorary D.D. degree from Syracuse University. In 1883 he came west, serving in Lawrence, Kansas (1883-1887), and Burlington, Iowa. A transfer to 1887 to Portland, Oregon, unfortunately brought on preexisting health problems (one source says malaria) contracted during his Civil War service and exacerbated by the climate; after two years he was transferred back to the Kansas Conference and appointed to Atchison, then to Washington Avenue Church, Kansas City, Kansas. (Some sources refer to it as Washington Boulevard Church.) He then served as presiding elder of the Kansas City district. At the close of his term, as presiding elder he was appointed assistant pastor at Washington Boulevard again; he served there until his death. While in Kansas City, he “rendered conspicuous service” in the founding and maintaining of Bethany Hospital, Fisk National Training School, and Deaconess Home. Ten days after his wife died (May 1912) he donated a tract of land adjoining their home to the Bethany hospital. Rev. Alderman served his charges during the time period when appointments were limited to three years. According to his wife’s memoir, he “always remained the full limit on his charges, and as a member of three General Conferences worked and voted for the removal of the time limit.” In all, he served the Methodist Episcopal Church for 58 years. Rev. Alderman is buried next to his wife in Highland Park Cemetery, Kansas City, Kansas. Although no children had been born to them, they were mourned by many ministers for whom he had served as a mentor, as well as by many younger men and women who had found the Alderman homes to be places of “attraction and inspiration.” After his death, his estate was revealed to be between $25,000 and $30,000 (1912 dollars). Aside from a few family belongings and some small bequests for a nephew and other extended family members, he left the bulk of his estate to various Methodist Episcopal boards and churches. He also left a generous gift of $2,000 to Baker University in Baldwin, Kansas.

Note written by Sarah St. John